Apple's Swift coding challenge for students will headline WWDC

[SOUND] Hey everyone, we're here with apples Esther hair today talking about some special announcements that are happening with Apple's WWDC, the virtual WWDC this year. So. Esther tell us a little bit about when w DC is happening this year. And what's the special announcement that you and your team are talking about? Yeah, definitely. So we just announced this morning that dub dub DC is going to kick off on June 22. So really excited for that and lots more to come in the growing coming months. But what we're really excited to talk about today is the swift student challenge. So that is really for all students around the globe to have an opportunity to show Apple, that coding chops but they've been working on some scenes, and playgrounds they've been working on, and swift playgrounds. You know we know right now there's a lot of kids who are at home they're studying at home. Parents are. Looking for really great ways to teach their kids things that are intuitive and engaging. And so we know there's a lot of kids right now who are playing around with swift playgrounds learning to code, it's perfect time. So we're really excited that we're still having this opportunity. Even though we don't have the typical scholarship to attend that we usually do with the in person conference. We still have a really great way for students to show us. All the things that you're working on and for us to really get that same sense of connection with our students, and see and support them, and uplift them, and share their stories Very cool. So what people will actually be doing Doing developers will be creating these modules that can be used in Swift playgrounds. They basically create a swift playground which is an interactive way of basically what's joyful about swift playgrounds is as you're creating code. Actually, it's running in real time next year. So back in the old days when you'd have to write code and run it, compile it and then run it and figure out and add in lines of code to figure out where did my code break, it's working, it's doing it as you're typing, it's going and swift playgrounds is a really amazing way to learn. How to actually code in Swift. It's super gamified, you need no coding experience whatsoever to downloads with playgrounds, on iPad or on Mac and get started. And so even if you're listening to this, and you You've never coded before a day in your life. It's definitely something you should do this with playgrounds app is for everybody. Young and old alike. We always try and remind parents this isn't an activity for the kids. This is an activity for everybody. It's important that everybody realizes how fun Fun coding can be how important it can be. So as a stem initiative, what kind of opportunity is there and how can this help a student you know, extend their STEM education? Yeah, I think you know, there's so many amazing stem organizations that we work with, you know, Girls Who Code we work with really closely code with glossy black girls code Latinas in tech. There's some really phenomenal stem organizations out there. At [UNKNOWN]. I mean, we work with so many great organisations. And I think, there's obviously swift playgrounds on Mac and iPad that you can download by yourself. There's Apple books those everyone can code puzzles. That another whole set of experiences that you can go through. There's a teacher guide on there. So anyone can learn how to go. Anyone can learn how to be a teacher. You just have to be two steps ahead of your kids. But also you can reach out to any of the STEM organizations across the country, across the world, that are running summer programs. A lot of those STEM organizations are pivoting right now to To virtual programs for the summer because they know there's gonna be a lot of kids who are have all this pent up energy. And their brains haven't been being used to full extent and they're ready to do something. I think it's interesting how you think the kids could play video games till the cows come home but actually, when you let them out, have it, after a couple of weeks they emerge from their bedrooms. What else can I do [LAUGH] [LAUGH] For those kids This is a really great way for them to learn how to code those games that they love.- Yeah that's great Getting it solved that way. And for parents too, they're just dying for something to get ->> Something, yeah. It's constructive and it's also ->>Right. Gonna be fun and engaging. Right, exactly. And it's so intuitive that really Doesn't need parental supervision it's, you know, the answers are right there you know in the in the coding and it's fun and it's something parents can follow along them and we encourage parents to follow along and do it, you know, together with your child does it do it as a challenge, challenge each other to get, you know, to finish first and use that as a fun way to interact with your child. Swift playground is really as a bit of a hidden jam that people who know about it really love it. But there are lots of people that still don't know about it. That it is free, a great way to learn the code. It's great, yeah. But it's not just for kids. I mean, there have been swift scholars, as I understand is old is 80 years old or more. You're right. Yeah. Been winners before, yeah? We have had an 82 year old and we've had a nine year old. So you can learn to code at literally any age in our 82 year old started learning to code in his late 70s. So, no excuses whatsoever. Very cool. So, tell us a little bit about the contest itself. What can you tell us about who can participate, you know, how will they be recognized and then what will the things that they create how they become useful and available to anybody out there to learn and use. Yeah, so swift playgrounds, what they've tried to create is a really intuitive, engaging experience within swift playgrounds that we, as judges can see within three minutes. Obviously thousands of applications we can have something that takes you 20 minutes to get into. But what we realized when we do that is It's really focused and really precise. So it's, it's not a huge undertaking for the students to actually create and that students of all ages. But but also it's, you know, it's fun, it's intuitive, it's engaging. It's a really quick and easy way and what we've found is. This [UNKNOWN] that we love the most and the ones that have done the best are really ones that aligned with the same values that Apple has, really. So we've seen a lot of Soof playgrounds, winners over the over the past years that are to do with accessibility or education or Mental health, just a lot of the same things. The environment is a huge one. We see a lot of kids trying to figure out, how do you recycle the trash in your school? And we see apps and to playgrounds that are really approaching every kind of problem that kids see. I think that is one of the things that's really different about the way You know, I was about to say we but I don't judge your age. But the way that you know, we learned to code and the way that we learned anything really in school is we learned how to do exercises and workbooks and these days kids use technology. You know as a means to an end. They see an issue and they just want to create something that consultant, and so that's why it's so great when you see these kids that learn to code in Swift playgrounds, they you know, create these great experiences and then they go on to throw apps on the App Store they're solving real world issues that you know, close to their own hearts and it's you know, I think that's what makes the the programme itself just Some fun for us and honestly, every year is so humbling. It's inspiring and motivating and energizing but it's also like, wow, what am I doing? It's a good it's a good semi slap in the face for us to. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Verry cool. So people that create these will give students of all ages of course, the ability to Do some core stuff over the summer once all of them are created for the contest. Yeah. In June, right? Yeah. They'll be available to everyone after that. Yeah. But they'll be available to everyone, we don't publish them, for privacy resources obviously. But one of the things that we know is every year the same thing. Is our student community's super creative. And they always get together on their own terms and that's fine. There's a dub WC scholars app on the app store where a lot of them like to submit their their playgrounds just so they can share and, you know,share that code with each other.It's a really great community. And I think that's one of the things that we just love about it is, you know, you see these kids that maybe are, you know, Different or they don't have a whole lot of people in their community, maybe the only one in this school is really into it. And they come to WC and they find all these others that are just like them and the community. They form and they bond. It's like second to none. And so you see these kids, some of them, they win multiple years in a row. We've had scholarship winners who won a couple years started their own company. And since they have come back and being part of one of our other initiatives which Apple entrepreneur camp which is female founded and co-founded company. So it was really great to see that transition from student all the way through the program coming in now and be part of our ecosystem further down the line. So. Nice, so of course people today could download this with playgrounds App on especially on Mac or on iPad and get started. Yeah. But. How about if there are those who want to participate in the challenge, how do they get involved? So, you can just go to developer.apple.com. Click on the big WWDC button on the top, and you'll find everything you need to know about how to submit, what the roles are, how to be part of the forums, where you can ask each other questions. It's all right there. developer.apple.com Very cool. Well, thank you Esther. You are welcome. And more about all swift playgrounds as well as all of the fun stuff coming in at WWDC. it's gonna be great. We really gonna make the best. Thanks so much. Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time.